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0 © SAOL Project 1 © SAOL Project 2 © SAOL Project Contents Page Foreword 004 Acknowledgements 005 The SAOL Project 007 Introduction 008 Section 1: Introduction to RecoverMe 010 Section 2: Using the Manual 032 Module 1: Introduction 042 Module 2: The Role of Automatic Thoughts 070 Module 3: As Simple as ABC 086 Module 4: “I Disagree” 100 Module 5: Being More Than ‘Fine’ 116 Module 6: More Than Words 130 Module 7: Keeping the Wheels in Motion 146 Module 8: Embracing Success 160 Module 9: Facing Fear 172 Module 10: Becoming My Own Lighthouse 185 Module 11: The Middle Way 204 Module 12: I’m On My Way 218 Bibliography 231 Appendix 1 Attendance Sheet 238 Appendix 2 Emotions Diary 239 Appendix 3 Drug and Alcohol Diary 240 Appendix 4 Grounding Meditations 241 Appendix 5 Safe Plan 243 Appendix 6 Feedback form/Evaluation Scale 244 Appendix 7 Certificate 245 3 © SAOL Project Foreword I am very proud to be Chair of the SAOL Project as we launch another important manual that is going to improve the rehabilitative treatment for people in recovery from addiction throughout Ireland and beyond. As attention turns to ‘recovery’ in the political discourse about substance use treatment in Ireland, it is timely that SAOL presents a programme that looks squarely at this issue and offers a creative response for projects, supporting them in helping people in the early days of their recovery. Built around three of the best evidenced-based interventions known, (C.B.T., Motivational Interviewing and Mindfulness) RecoverMe is a powerful tool for recovery workers. Recovery is often a long and difficult course with slips and relapses as part of the process. Yet are all those slips and relapses necessary? If those in recovery knew earlier that their thought processes were likely to be adding to their problems and that greater awareness of their daily lives and the triggers inherent therein might lead to quicker recovery, would their choices be different? And for workers, if they had easily accessible tools that could help this process to occur more quickly, would that help? SAOL and RecoverMe believe so, and that is why this manual has been created. Inter-agency dialogue in recovery work must include sharing resources and that is why SAOL shares RecoverMe willingly today. Fittingly, it could not have been completed without the help and support of other addiction services, and to them I offer my heartfelt thanks. These agencies, that bring their skill and insights to this field, are a key resource for recovery and should be treasured as such. The current environment in Ireland, where services are being continually undermined due to insecure funding and threats to relationships with funding agencies, is harmful to this resource and more particularly, to the recovery of our clients and requires serious attention. Continued social deprivation among our client groups also undermines recovery; this requires immediate attention and action. As the call for greater emphasis to be placed on recovery is made, we should not forget that rehabilitation is only one aspect of this process; better and easier access to proper housing, good education that supports the needs of the children and adults who require it, faster and more supportive responses to domestic violence and equitable health care are just some of the areas that accompany people to effective recovery. RecoverMe will help this process but positive change is not possible without these social supports. People in recovery are regularly blamed for creating their own situation. Of course they must become aware of their own role in their situation and seek to change it, and that is where RecoverMe can help; but to blame people in recovery without reflection on the whole picture is in RecoverMe speak, ‘limited thinking’; thinking that is narrow and unhelpful. RecoverMe encourages people to challenge their limited 4 © SAOL Project thinking, disputing their thought patterns and finding newer, more truthful interpretations of their situations, and I encourage this for us all. I have already mentioned the incredible help received from other projects in completing this manual; I want now to thank the participants of SAOL for inspiring this manual and also assisting in its compilation. Particular thanks must go to Barry Costello for taking the original idea and creating a manual that makes the complexity of recovery and the convolution of emotions simple to understand and make effective. Thanks also to our inspiring Director, Gary Broderick, for guiding this work; and to all the staff, board members, volunteers and student placements that have had a significant part to play in this publication. My thanks also to the academics and practitioners, from around the world, who read and guided the creation of RecoverMe. The SAOL Project aims ‘to develop, responding to the changing needs of the women who participate in our project with creativity and commitment’ and I am proud to launch RecoverMe knowing that this undertaking continues in 2014. Catriona Crowe Chairperson SAOL Project June 2014 5 © SAOL Project Acknowledgments SAOL Project would like to thank everyone who contributed to the development of RecoverMe, particularly: . Barry Costello, the lead writer and foremost practitioner of RecoverMe. It is an understatement to say that this manual would not have existed without you. The hours of extra work you have put into this publication can never be repaid – and we mean that, they can never be repaid, it’s part of our funding agreements! You’re too young to be leaving a legacy but if you do no more than RecoverMe, you can be very proud. Gary Broderick, who came up with one exercise on his own and got it on the front cover. To the participants who are the reason for this, who demanded this and who made this manual possible by ‘doing RecoverMe’ before everyone else. To all the Board of Management, staff, volunteers and student placements who brought their unique hope and kindness to RecoverMe. SAOL can only do what it does because of you and is what it is because of you and the fact that the participants who come to SAOL have a better chance of recovery by coming here is because of you and the relationships you form with them. RecoverMe is an expression of that and you should be almost as proud as Barry. The team will support me in offering particular thanks to Bernie for the brillant edating and spilling cheques as well as your amazingly positive outlook that brings happiness to the project every day. Joanne, who got the photocopier repaired; your timing was perfect. To the projects who piloted RecoverMe – ARAS, Ballyfermot STAR, Ballymun STAR and Coolmine Drug Free Day Programme – many thanks to the staff who worked on the pilot and the participants who took part and gave such valuable feedback. To Kevin Ducray, Melinda Hohman, Hilda Loughran and Josephine Lynch for your support, encouragement and academic prowess. To all the agencies who fund the work of the SAOL Project – HSE, DSP, Probation, NICDATF and CDETB – we continue to be very grateful and hope you continue to support what we do. Special thanks to Unite Union, Hayworth and Hunt Office who have supported this launch of RecoverMe; and to the Department of Health and the Office of Public Works for sponsoring the launch at Dublin Castle conference Centre. 6 © SAOL Project The SAOL Project Housed in Amiens Street in the North Inner City of Dublin, SAOL is Ireland’s oldest and only dedicated recovery programme for women. It offers a safe environment that welcomes women at all stages in their recovery journey, asking only for them to have willingness to explore how their lives might be improved. We believe in recovery as a process and not an end in itself; we know that for some, becoming drug free will be a distant goal, whereas for others, such a goal is nearer at hand. Whether at the start or nearing the end of your expedition, you are welcome at SAOL. Along with its Children’s Project, SAOL Beag, SAOL tries to create a welcoming environment for women who regularly experience rejection and scorn. We hope that SAOL is a place where shame and guilt are found to be unwelcome. For women with children, we want SAOL to be a place where they can come and find support and encouragement; child protection is very important to us and we believe that such protection begins with the mother. Education is central to our approach and through all kinds of courses (from technical and vocational to practical and fun) we try to offer women a sense of what life can be like when addiction is not the only thing that fills her day. We are creative and political, artistic and community focused. We want everyone who comes to SAOL to find something that they never knew was there; and we know that that will bring hope and excitement and within such an environment, addiction will stutter. As people learn, they grow; as they grow, they move beyond who they are right now; and it is that, as Paolo Frere suggested, that will move them away from poverty and beyond addiction. SAOL wants also to reach out to our colleagues in the addiction field and share our insights and learn from them. We (that is, staff and participants) produce manuals and programmes and poetry and research and we hope you will read our work (www.saolproject.ie). We hope it inspires you and gets you talking back to us, helping us to better change the way we do things. SAOL has been working with women in recovery for more than 19 years, from the same street and the same building.